This invention relates to the field of garment hangers, particularly to hanger attachments designed to provide garment hangers with a wider, non-slip surface on which the garment hangs.
It has long been known that the economical wire garment hanger, while having numerous advantages such as ease of manufacture and low cost, is also burdened by numerous disadvantages. In order to make a wire hanger in a traditional manner, the diameter of the wire must be sufficiently small so as to allow easy manipulation of the wire. Unfortunately, this thin diameter can damage or distort clothing hanging on it. In addition, wire garment hangers are capable of rusting, which also can destroy clothing through staining. Finally, wire hangers generally have a slick surface, which means that clothing may slide off of the hanger.
The recent emergence of plastic garment hangers has reduced these disadvantages to some extent. Standard plastic hangers have a wider diameter than wire hangers, which results in less distortion to the clothing. However, plastic hangers still do not have a diameter that approaches the size of a human shoulder, and therefore still result in clothing distortion. This is particularly true when clothing is left to dry on the hanger. A diameter that would be wide enough to prevent distortion (i.e., on the order of magnitude of the width of a human shoulder) would be difficult to make, deliver, store, and sell, if such a hanger were made completely out of plastic. In addition, although plastic hangers do not rust like wire hangers, they do have a similarly slick surface that allows clothing to slide off the hanger.
Specialty hangers have been developed that solved the problems relating to wire and plastic hangers. These specialty hangers have a hook, like all hangers, and have wide, padded arms. These arms have a width wider than that of a traditional plastic hanger, to allow the clothing to hang and to dry in a more natural form. The arms are generally padded, such as with a resilient, fabric covered pad. By covering the pads with fabric, or by alternatively forming the pads with a non-slip foam, the arms keep the clothing from sliding off. However, such specialty hangers are created so that the wide, padded arms cannot be removed. Removal is necessary in order to allow the pads to be washed if dirty, changed if damaged, or removed if no longer needed. In addition, specialty hangers tend to be significantly more expensive than standard plastic or wire hangers due to the additional steps required for their manufacture.
What is needed is a replaceable attachment for standard hangers that
can be used with both plastic and wire hangers; PA1 creates a wide, rounded shoulder for allowing clothes to hang in a natural shape; PA1 has a non-slip surface to prevent clothes from sliding; PA1 is easily attachable and removable; and PA1 can be constructed simply and inexpensively. Although there are several designs in the prior art for hanger attachment that meet one or more of these needs, none of the prior art attachments meet all of these needs.
For instance, one known type of hanger attachment is the rigid hanger sheath, exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 3,301,447 to Felton. In this patent, a sheath of rigid plastic material is made which can snap onto a standard wire hanger. Because the snaps which hold the sheath in place must be of the correct size to hold a wire hanger snugly, a single sheath could not be utilized with both a wire and a plastic hanger. In addition, although the sheath could be inexpensively manufactured through plastic injection molding, the rigidness of the plastic required to form the snaps generally prevents the surface from having a non-slip characteristic. Ridges in the surface of the sheath are known in the prior art, but are inferior to surfaces made entirely of a non-slip material. Also known is the technique of covering of the surface of the sheath with a cushioning material such as sponge rubber. However, this multi-layer design is inherently expensive.
Similar hanger sheaths, such as those in U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,614 to Musante and U.S. Pat. No. 3,807,609 to Tymoszek, also need to be constructed with rigid materials in order to keep their shape. As a result, it is difficult to create a non-slip surface without creating a multi-layer design. While not providing a complete sheath, the clothes hanger attachment in U.S. Pat. No. 3,733,016 to Rood also is made out of a rigid material in order to keep its shape and to snap onto a wire hanger.
An alternative attachment to a clothes hanger is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,680,747 to Quisling. In this attachment, an elongated strip of paperboard or plastic is wound about a wire hanger. Unfortunately, the shoulder portion created by this attachment is a flat, albeit wide surface, and consequently does not provide the preferred rounded shoulder.
A rounded shoulder is provided by U.S. Pat. No. 3,212,687 to Bradley through the use of two resilient pad sections, each constructed to hold the pad in the desired shape, and joined together by means of an elastic strip. Unfortunately, the complicated construction of this hanger attachment makes inexpensive manufacturing of the attachment impossible.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,602,408 to Gaydos describes a wire hanger clip designed to be clipped onto one end of a wire hanger to provide wide support for a garment's shoulder. A similar clip must be clipped onto the other end of the wire hanger to provide support for each shoulder. This invention suffers in that it is designed to be held in place frictionally or resiliently, and therefore must be manufactured for a specific width of a hanger--either a wire hanger or a plastic hanger, but not both. Furthermore, this invention suffers in that two separate attachments are necessary for each hanger, allowing the attachments to easily separate from each other.
Another prior art hanger attachment that is used in commercial retail markets is shown in FIG. 1. To form this attachment 10, a thin, rectangular sheet of material such as foam rubber is folded lengthwise and fused together at its two ends 12, 14. A length-wise hole 16 through the middle of the rectangle allows the hook 18 of a wire hanger 20 to pass through. The rounded corners of the hanger 20 abut the attachment 10 where the sides 12, 14 of the attachment 10 are fused together. The main length of the attachment 10 is folded around the shoulder portions of hanger 20, forming padded shoulder portions 22 and 24.
The disadvantage of this attachment 10 is that the shoulder portions 22, 24 that are formed are relatively narrow compared to other attachments and therefore do not adequately shape a garment that is hung on hanger 20. The reason for this is shown in the cross-sectional view of attachment 10 shown in FIG. 2. Because the thin rectangle material that forms the attachment 10 must be folded over the hanger 20, the thickness of the material is limited. If the material forming attachment 10 were thicker, it would become difficult to easily fold the material over the hanger 20 and fuse it together at ends 12, 14.
A final prior art hanger attachment is shown in FIG. 3. In this figure, the attachment 30 is a thin, rubbery layer that is glued or otherwise attached to a flat surface on plastic hanger 32, such as by stretching a rubber-like band between two clips. Unfortunately, this attachment 30 must either be permanently attached, or otherwise cannot easily be used on hangers 32 not specifically designed for the attachment 30.
The present invention overcomes these limitations in the prior art by providing a hanger attachment that can be used with both plastic and wire hangers; creates a wide, rounded shoulder for allowing clothes to hang in a natural shape; has a non-slip surface to prevent clothes from sliding; is easily attachable and removable; and can be constructed simply and easily.